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Saina Nehwal made a disappointing return to the court, crashing to a first round defeat in the Japan Open Super Series badminton tournament in Tokyo on Wednesday.

However, P Kashyap kept Indian hopes alive by advancing to the pre-quarter-finals.

The only Indian contender in the men's singles, Kashyap scored a 21-17, 12-21, 21-11 win over Japan's Takuma Ueda in a 51-minute encounter.

World No 34 Kashyap will next take on No 3 Peter Hoeg Gade of Denmark in the Thursday's pre-quarter-finals.

Saina, coming back after a month's break, lost 15-21, 23-21, 14-21 to world No 10 Yanjiao Jiang of China in 53 minutes in the women's singles.

The seventh seeded Indian mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju also hit a low after their Chinese Taipei Grand Prix gold win last month and crashed out of the tournament, losing 18-21, 12-21 to te Thai combo of Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thungthongkam.

Jwala had more disappointment in store as she and Ashwini Ponnappa were beaten 15-21, 21-19, 18-21 by the seventh seeded Japanese combo of Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna in the women's doubles opener that lasted more than one hour.

The men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas also bit the dust, going down 12-21, 16-21 to the Korean pair of Sung Hyun Ko and Yi Goo Kwon inside 30 minutes.